Architectural Photography nowadays, and been in the past, a form of creative and visual storytelling. It exhibits tangible cultural expressions of any region in its glory. It allows the visitors to narrate their experience visiting the structure or the photographers to express their creative frames. To each perceiver, it could place multiple meanings. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and it is deemed true in architectural photography. The most suitable medium is a balanced, systematically composed photograph that displays the look and feel of a building.
Significance of Photography in Architecture
1 – Creative Expression: As a form of creative communication, photography is a visual medium through which architectural ideas, concepts, and narratives are conveyed. With images curated with great attention to detail, it can convey the intended message of a building, its aesthetics, functionality, and the design intent to many audiences with diverse backgrounds, such as the public, the clients, or the stakeholders.
2 – Business Strategy: An impactful photograph of any built form is vital for marketing or promoting architectural or urban-scale projects. The high-resolution images can easily highlight the unique features, materials, and craftsmanship of any building, attracting potential clients, investors, and visitors. These images are often the full-scale representation of the intended projects. They are displayed in brochures, websites, social media, and advertising campaigns to create a visual impact and generate interest among the public.
3 – Documentation: This is an incredibly important aspect of filing a development process – either while the structure is getting built or to document a structure for restoration purposes. The photographic evidence adds value to the project process and is a visual record of the project’s evolution. The photographs are then used to showcase the architect’s work to potential clients, employers, or collaborators as a portfolio of their compiled work. Working with an event photographer to capture grand openings and other important gatherings throughout a project also falls into this category, creating a compelling record of milestones as they are reached.
Documentation is also used for educational purposes when the students learning about specific built forms can use the photographs for case study purposes.
4 – Aspiration, Inspiration & Innovation: With the onslaught of new trends in the architectural built-form process, the photographs exhibit diverse styles. These are the source of inspiration for practising & aspiring architects and engineers and the aspiration for the public to visit the building. New insights, ideas, and innovative approaches for the technical and construction aspects can be gained. These photographs capture the essence of architecture and enable architects to explore new possibilities, challenge conventions, and push the boundaries of design.
Illumination in Architecture: The Role of Lighting as a Function
Lighting plays a crucial role in defining and accentuating architectural spaces. It serves multiple functions and is an integral component of any building – especially for natural daylight in the room during the day and artificial lighting inside out.
Its primary function is to provide adequate illumination for practical use within a space. For indoor spaces, it ensures that the users can move around with aligned visual cognition of the space to perform tasks safely and comfortably. Each building requires varying levels of illumination based on its function. This can be fulfilled by mindful space design to allow natural light indoors.
Using Natural and Artificial Light for Photography
Natural Light
Natural Light for Architectural Photography depends largely on the weather of the location. An abundant natural light inside the built space is also a result of the architectural design prioritising skylights, fenestrations, louvres, and wall-to-floor open windows. This adds to the energy efficiency of the built form.
With the quality of light varying throughout the day, some of the most favorable timings for the photographers include the golden hours after sunrise, before sunset, and during the bright noon.
The picture above has been captured late afternoon or early evening, as the sunlight seems softened. Few aspects have contributed to reflecting the wide span of the space. The wall colours, the wide fenestrations, and the angle at which the photographer has captured the scene. The architectural features have meticulously placed the carpet design and contribute to defining the space and its function.
The direction of light is important as side lights can emphasise architectural texture and details, and back lights can create a sense of the silhouette effect and provide a sense of the magnitude of the built form.
Architectural photography with shadows and reflections is a play with sunlight. This can enhance architectural compositions. They add visual interest and can create captivating compositions. Additionally, a creative play with shadows creates intriguing patterns and textures.
The plain colours of the terrace space contrast with the external view. The open rooftop allows a panoramic clear view of the surrounding. The cirrus clouds in the background give a spatial depth to the image.
Overcast grey days, clear blue skies, or sparingly cloudy skies also add to the impact and drama of the building with its surrounding scene.
Artificial Light
Artificial lights are generally used after sunset when it is darker outside. Nighttime usually brings out a different perspective of the building.
The light plays a functional and aesthetic role in this. It typically highlights and enhances the architectural features of the building. These lights are termed accent lights. A critical component for a successful photograph with artificial light is light planning for the facades. The façades add to the functional and aesthetic component of the building.
Castel Sant’Angelo, situated in Rome, has an interesting ensemble—the Castle with the bridge and its reflection in the water. The consistent nature of the lighting and colour supports the form and composition.
Artificial light is often intentionally designed to integrate with the building’s architecture. This can either be in the form of product design or integrated into the structure. This technique could either be experience specific or function-specific. Indoor lights also contribute to the outdoor characteristic of the building.
Composition plays a crucial role in photographs with artificial lights. The lines, symmetry, patterns, and reflections can highlight the built forms and enhance the structure’s beauty. In this case, the context surrounding the building can also contribute to its creative composition. It creates a visual story for the viewer.
Clicking photos during the blue hour (a period of twilight before sunrise or after sunset) when the sky has a deep blue hue contrast with the light from the building to create pleasant compositions with a beautiful backdrop.
The Colours and texture in the room play with the light to create a blended image of the living room space. The ambient sets the tone for the interaction space. The accent light highlights the staircase space and adds a visual quality to the plain surface.
Artificial, aesthetic lighting for indoor purposes includes task lighting, designed to assist specific activities, and ambient lighting, which can be tuned to make the space brighter or darker, providing an overall illumination and can immediately impact the user’s psychological state.
Beyond Architecture, at the City Scale
Usually, at the city level, streetlights are the most common form of lighting. The architectural built forms and the light planning for the structures contribute to the light character of the city. So, the lighting from urban streets, plazas, open squares, gardens, and the built forms contribute the brightening up a city at night. Using the benefits of these lights, urban spaces become accessible at night. The symbiosis of light and its surroundings plays an essential role in architecture, as well as in landscape design and urban planning.
The bird’s eye view shows the existing lights in the city laid out on the ground. It easily configures as a lighting masterplan. The light gradations and local light hierarchies can be observed through the window.
Depending on the function & design of the building, its exterior either blends into and contributes to its surrounding context or stands out strikingly. Based on this, the lighting can contribute as a functional element. The light design principles and techniques can be used to enhance the nighttime experience of the cityscape.
The shop front design quite possibly adds to the cultural and visual characteristics of the region it is based in. Its façade provides lighting to the street and highlights its function (that of a bookstore). The signage encourages people to go in and explore. Its side elevation also contributes to the social element. People can click pictures and engage with the structure interactively.
This involves illuminating the building (or landmark) and its surrounding public space, the streets leading to the building, or even infrastructure (such as bridges) to create a visually appealing, safe, and vibrant urban environment. This lighting also demarcates the extent of the landmark or built form.
The lighting, signage, and display features from individual buildings contribute commonly and extensively to lighting up a crowded public space in a city. The architectural connectivity and the people visiting the common space receive its bright impact.
The design articulated specifically for each structure accentuates its architectural features and textures and adds to the scenic backdrop providing visual pleasure. It invites public engagement and interactions and promotes a sense of community.
The Role of Digital Technology in Architectural Photography
Digital technology has revolutionised the field of architectural photography. This provides architectural photography enthusiasts and laymen with varied and ever-evolving tools and techniques to capture, curate and present architectural designs.
With the incessant demand for this technology, many electronic companies are coming up with devices of varied price ranges and deals that can be afforded by people of different economic backgrounds, making architectural photography an accessible field for creative exploration. Additionally, it is observed that irrespective of the price range of any device, the number of features and settings for each is still comparatively at par with one another. A good photograph also depends on the skills and techniques the photographer adopts.
The above image is supported by contextual information and visual clues that immediately establish the scale of the project. The building’s primary use as a venue for large-scale entertainment events is suggested by the interior and exterior colours’ richness and enhanced by the night-time view.
Some significant features include
- High-Resolution Image Capture Quality allows the photographer to precisely capture the intricate details, textures, and colours of architectural structures.
- Convenient editing and post-processing of the images immediately or with online software such as Adobe Lightroom. Adjusting the brightness, contrast, exposure, and contrast enhances the overall visual impact of the photograph.
- Aerial Photography allows the photographer to use Drones to capture images from a height. It offers a comprehensive view of large-scale projects, showcasing the surrounding context and highlighting design elements that are not easily observed from the ground.
- Vlogging cameras allow photographers to film images and document the scenes nearby on the go. These cameras are built for portability, and nowadays, many photography creators use these for convenient documentation and filming.
- A Plethora of Photo editing Software has been a blessing for photographers. This help to enhance the photographs and can contribute to making movies of the captured images and video clips. Some editing software also allows stitching techniques to capture panoramic views of architectural spaces, allowing the users to view and experience any location virtually, for instance, Google Earth Pro.
These advancements have expanded the possibilities for architectural photographers, laymen, and photography enthusiasts to explore different photography types and pioneer architectural photography representation techniques, thereby enhancing architectural representation and understanding of architectural designs. A combination of photography techniques with related software can represent interesting visualisation themes
Architectural Photography & their Perceptions
Architectural Photography is practised to communicate visually. The intent of the photograph varies with the perceiver who is the photographer. No matter the perception, the built form is the locus of the photograph. It is a creative and subjective process.
This involves the photographer’s interpretations, artistic choices, and technical skills to capture the essence and significance of architecture, communicating its beauty, functionality, and impact to the viewer. The perceptiveness of the photographer can impact the narrative of the photograph. The environmental variables and the lighting could influence the photoshoot well, and a spontaneous shutter release captures an exceptional moment.
The above picture, for example, can be perceived variably. To an architectural photographer, the above image might seem like a creative composition of buildings, curated with the necessary exposure, lighting, angles, and other components. To a budding architect, it could conspire the feelings to someday design and execute high-rise buildings in their career. A construction engineer might further investigate the details of the materials and their placement. A layman will simply look at the photograph for its viewing pleasure.
A photograph can reflect an appreciation for the region’s landmarks or be used as documentation for a case study. It can represent the progress of an architectural project, exhibit an abstract experimental approach to photography, or simply capture the essence of the architectural built form in the context of its user.
Architectural photography also adds to the creative process of architectural design. The images can give an overall view of the design and a second glance for changes when required.
References:
- Lam, W. (1991). Perception and Lighting as Formgivers for Architecture. 2nd Ed. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold
- Phillips, D. (2004). Daylighting- Natural Light in Architecture. Burlington: Architectural Press.
- Stean, Mary A. (2011) The Architecture of Light_ Recent Approaches to Designing with Natural Light. New York & London: Routledge.
- Schulz, A. (2015). Architectural Photography. Santa Barbara: Rocky Nook Inc.
- Kopelow, G. (2007). Architectural Photography – The Digital Way. New York: Princeton Architectural Press
- Davoudian, N (Dr.). (2019). Urban Lighting for People Evidence-Based Lighting Design for the Built Environment. London: RIBA Publishing
- Van Santen C. (2006) Light Zone City – Light Planning in the Urban Context. London, Basel, Berlin: Birkhauser, Publishers for Architecture
- Geissmar-Brandi, C., and Brandi, U. (2006). Light for Cities – Lighting Design for Urban Spaces, A Handbook. London, Basel, Berlin: Birkhauser, Publishers for Architecture
- Jardin, V. (2018). Street Photography- Creative Vision Behind the Lens. New York & London: Routledge.
- Lewis, G. (2015). Street Photography-The Art of Capturing the Candid Moment. Santa Barbara: Rocky Nook Inc.
